cubist viewing

I got up early and finished a ccmixter piece of sequenced kitchen percussion on the Tunafish sequencer. I was really excited to try out some new low-cost VST synths I bought called Ironhead: Spawn. They performed in a really cool way--they have names like "ding", "bash" and "crash".

I spent the morning hiking the nature trail at Towne Lake Park in nearby McKinney. I loved watching a centipede and several roly-polys (sow bugs) walking on a log. I startled a lovely great blue heron by a creek not fifteen feet from me, who gracefully flew off. I got cool video with my cheap vidcam. I am starting to figure out the liberation in its limitations.

I stopped by Half=priced Books and bought a boxed set of Mahler's symphonies, and enjoyed a 1939 Dutch Concertgebouw version of the 4th in G. I also got a travel book an eventual trip ito Colorado--scaled back from Europe due to a pressing work schedule. It's easier to cell phone and internet from Colorado with only a one hour time zone difference.

We went to the Meadows Museum in Dallas to see an exhibition of Diego Rivera cubist portraits today, which we found fascinating. The paintings by Miro and the photos by Manuel Alvarez Bravo also impressed me. The museum's permanent collection of older Spanish art helped complete a wonderful experience.

Then we went to Northhaven Gardens in Dallas, a great old-fashioned nursery. My wife bought a tomato plant, as it is already Autumn planting time. I took pictures of hibiscus.

We ate fresh seafood at Rockfish Grill. Then we stopped by a car dealer. My wife's Toyota has 160,000 miles, so we see a new car in her future. She test drove some Toyotas. The attentive and low-pressure tactics of the sales guy in McKinney impressed me.

We walked our dogs in the dark tonight, as the weather has cooled to merely scorching temperatures. Our neighborhood pool was having its "adults only party". This apparently is an annual event which serves as a mediocre event for unenlightened DJs. The "greatest hits of the 70s" array of songs were not the songs I loved from the 70s. They were playing "Sugar Sugar", which is at least fun--and I am grateful we exited before the inevitable playing of "Brick House".

Did you ever feel as if the soundtrack of your life was "Music for Airports" and the world's soundtrack is"The Girl is Mine"? I feel that way every day.